Being a maid at the Veiled Prophet Ball means much more than making a formal debut into society at the city’s glitziest Party of the Year. The young women also spend time giving back to the community—often with Dad by their side—so they finally will understand the responsibilities of volunteerisim and civic service.
Rusty & Colleen Crutsinger
Colleen and Rusty Crutsinger, pictured above, know what it means to get their hands dirty. Before Colleen was presented as a maid at the 2014 ball, she and her father worked on a variety of community service projects organized by the V.P. The one for Food Outreach saw the team scrubbing dishes while about 20 other girls and their fathers prepared thousands of meals to be handed out to those in need, Rusty Crutsinger relates.
The dad/daughter duo also volunteered at Marian School, which educates underserved girls. The Crutsingers and other participants spent a day cleaning out and organizing the school’s attic, painting classrooms and hallways, and completing other maintenance tasks.
Besides the benefit to the community, Crutsinger says the projects offer a fun way to bond with his daughter. “You talk about stuff you normally don’t have the time to talk about,” he says. “And it’s fun to be part of such a long-standing V.P. tradition and know you’re helping the community out, as well.”
Giving back is not a new concept for the Crutsinger family. Colleen’s older sister was a maid at the V.P. Ball three years ago, and she also participated in community service for years leading up to the event. Overall, Crutsinger hopes that the experience has infused Colleen with a passion for giving back. “I’m big on volunteering, and I wanted her to understand it’s not a burden,” he says. “I always volunteer for the dirtiest jobs, and we make it fun. At the end of the day, if you’re sore, dirty and stinky, you know you accomplished something worthwhile.”
Colleen Crutsinger, a graduate of Nerinx Hall, is studying international business at the University of Missouri.
Jim & Alison Mather
Alison Mather is the first in her family to be presented as a maid at the V.P. Ball. Leading up to the event, she and her father, Jim Mather, dove headfirst into volunteering. “We worked with many other fathers and daughters, and other family members, too, to help out several organizations,” Jim Mather says.
Many of the V.P. community service projects involved working alongside those who benefit from the nonprofit’s efforts. That was the case with U.S. Vets-St. Louis, which provides transitional assistance and housing programs for veterans, and Rainbow Village, which provides housing for those with developmental disabilities. “With both cases, we were able to work side-by-side with residents,” Mather says. “We did substantial landscaping in Rainbow Village, including upgrades around the homes, edging and stonework—pretty heavy lifting for the girls. And at U.S. Vets we also did landscaping and built up an area around a playground for children who live there.”
Outside of their volunteer work with the V.P., the Mather family also has been involved with church and youth group trips, as well as mission trips.
Like many fathers whose daughters are presented as maids, Mather hopes the experience teaches his daughter the importance of giving back. “I hope she comes away from this knowing the importance of being active in the community and helping others, and I hope she wants to build that into her everyday life,” he says. “I view the Veiled Prophet as a celebration of involvement in the community, and we have a long-term commitment to do this through our lifetime. It’s been a wonderful experience for Alison and me to give back and be involved with many other families and in various areas of St. Louis.”
Alison Mather, a graduate of Lindbergh High School, is pre-law and studying writing at Texas Christian University.
Mac & Madeline Scott
“Each of my daughters did three years of service, if not more,” Mac Scott says. “We all tend to live in our own little communities and never really venture out much beyond that, so it’s a good opportunity for dads and daughters, and siblings and moms, too, to get out and see the community from a different perspective.”
Together, Mac and Madeline volunteered for multiple projects. One, for Rainbow Village, involved building a retaining wall around a flower bed and staining and treating wood decks and pathways. The daughter/dad team also has participated in landscaping projects for Beyond Housing, which provides assistance to low-income families.
The V.P. community service projects aren’t all grunt work, however. At Northside Community School, in addition to landscaping work, the volunteers transformed a large, drab gray gymnasium wall into a colorful mural. “One of the guys who works on the VP Parade floats created a paint-by-numbers mural on the wall showing kids doing different activities, such as basketball, baseball and volleyball,” Scott says. “By the end, people were just standing in the gym saying, Wow, this looks really cool. It turned out to be a great success.”
At the end of the day, Scott says he hopes Madeline has learned that community service can be fun. “In the mornings before you start on a project, it can be hard to be motivated to get going, but once you get out there and interact with others, it’s fun to work alongside people in these communities,” he says. “It’s important that we stretch ourselves out a bit to understand how people who live only a few miles away from us have a different life.”
Madeline Scott, a Whitfield School graduate, is studying art history at Tulane University.